Im going to be a foreign exchange student?

Question

i am currently a sophmore in hs in florida. next year, i got accepted to go be a foreign exchange student for my junior. I have to put in my top 3 choices for countries by monday so that i can leave by middle of july. my top 4 are new zealand, australia, spain and germany. i should probably do some research, but i figured i could ask here first for a few things. I think all would be equally cool, so... yeah. But i wanted to know about the schooling systems of the 4 places. As in, what is equivalent to the 11th grade in the 4 countries. thanks. also any other interesting facts would be great. also facts on the weather. thank you!

Answer 1

To start, I'd advise putting either Spain or Germany at the top of your list. That's nothing bad about the other countries, however one of the biggest benefits of a foreign exchange year is language immersion -- you won't get that in NZ or AUS. A second language, especially if you continue it in college, is something that will add to the bottom line in the work force!

As far as interesting facts -- try the CIA World Fact Book for the basic information. that will give you all of the statistics for each country -- even some on weather and education.

You might also check out this site -- http://www.exchangestudentworld.com/

It's an online community of current and former exchange students and they have a lot of good advice to offer (for those of you wanting to use that site to 'violate' this answer -- it is NOT a commercial site, it sells nothing).

Good luck and have a great time!

Answer 2

Australia

Weather

Okay, well you probably already know that July in Australia is Winter, not Summer like in the US. The same goes for New Zealand. Basically, depending on what part of Australia, it's usually around 10-20 degress celcius, rain, wind and in some places snow. Presuming you're going for a year, Spring is next, then Summer and Autumn andback to winter. So, once again, depending what part of Aus, Summer temperatures are somewhere between 25-40 degrees celsius.

School

You have to wear a uniform, which I believe is actually a good thing because it saves you having to come up with a new outfit everyday- you can just go on autopilot! So if the program you're on doesn't cover that, you'll have t buy one.

High School is years 7 to 10 or 7 to 12. (years 11 and 12 aren't mandatory and some schools don't run those years and instead you change to a 11-12 year specific). I'm not 100% but I believe US year 11 is equivalent to an Australian year 10. So you will also be arriving half way through the school year, as the Aus school year runs from January to December. At the end of year 10 is a major exam- the School Certificate, (and your teachers never let you forget it either. I'm in yr 10 now andvereyday we get rallied on how are marks are important for this test and our futures....)

Other

We do not have pet kangaroos nor ride them to school, lol.

Also, if you come to Australia, watch out for Drop Bears!